Colts will use tag 'as a matter of course' to keep Manning

[ManInTheMirror]

http://www.opposingviews.com/attachments/0012/3336/peyton-manning.jpg?1293583265

The Indianapolis Colts are prepared to use the franchise tag on quarterback Peyton Manning, according to the Indianapolis Star.

The collective bargaining agreement expires March 3, and the Colts have until Feb. 22 under the current agreement to tag Manning. The "exclusive" franchise tag gives a team the eclusive right to a player for one year, but at a price. The Colts would need to pay Manning the average of the top five QB salaries, or 120 percent of his 2010 salary, whichever is greater. According to the Star, the one-year deal would pay Manning $23 million next season to stay in Indianapolis.

Manning is due to become a free agent and Colts owner Jim Irsay said more than a year ago that he wants to give Manning a deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the league and keep him in a Colts uniform for the rest of his career.

Colts president Bill Polian last talked with Manning's agent, Tom Condon, in January and didn't offer the newspaper a progress report.

"It'll get done when it gets done," he said Wednesday. "We're in a very, very unsettled situation as an industry, so I don't have any timetable specifically."

If a deal isn't reached, the team could tag him to buy time at the negotiating table, as they did back in 2004.

Polian told the paper he was willing to go that route again "as a matter of course, as we did (in '04)."

[MasterPattie]

As fans, how do you guys feel about franchise tags? Players in general don't like it obviously because they are looking for long-term deals.

But what do you think of the tag as a fan?

[nabzy28]

I like it but, only because it does give a team a right to negotiate with these guys. Too many of them just want to abandon the team that drafted them. In that regard, I'm old school on this issue. I appreciate the guys who stick with the team that drafted them, unless they're stuck in a very poor situation and they could contribute more elsewhere and have done nothing to create the poor situation themselves.

Examples: Carson Palmer. Unfortunately it's too late for him. He would have had a fantastic career elsewhere but, now, they're trying to franchise tag him and - what for? So he can come back and have half the team get arrested and fail to make the playoffs again? Then, they'll probably just trade away one of his WR's at season's end? Come on, let the guy go.

Also, Larry Fitzgerald. His contract is up next year and he falls into this same type of money issue as Manning. His contract guarantees him 23 freakin' million dollars if they franchise tag him. That's one expensive WR. I am hoping they let him go to a team who actually has a QB so he can resume his HOF career. If not, why? Otherwise, he's stuck in Ariz. with QB's who probably couldn't be 2nd string for most teams. What an immense waste of talent if they try to keep him there. Of course, they have all off-season to get a QB but, it sure seems to me like no one wants to go there, amazingly.

So, I guess, it works both ways. While I hope they use it to bargain with Manning, I also hope these other teams just back off and stop being so selfish while crushing the careers of NFL stars. With Manning, this helps due to the collective bargaining agreement taking up so much focus, as the Colts indicated. I think he'd be staying anyhow. He's too smart a business man to pull a Lebron...